In this paper, I tell the stories of Jewish survivors who made their way to their hometowns in
Poland and Slovakia between the fall of 1944 and summer 1948. I describe liberation by the
Soviet Army and attitudes toward the liberators in Poland and Slovakia. I ask what the
Jewish position was in the complex matrix of Polish-Russian relations in 1944 and 1945.
Then I follow the survivors during the first hours, days, and weeks after liberation. I
describe their pursuit of something to eat and wear and a place to sleep. Finally, I focus on
the journey home of Jewish survivors leaving for their hometowns in the hope of finding
living relatives and their homes intact. I look at all those experiences as a time of exchange
and confrontation between liberators and the liberated and among travelers on the road. I
argue that these encounters were not homogenously marked by violence, hatred, and mutual
resentment, but also by curiosity, solidarity, and indifference.